That is rather peculiar.

Hi by Miah on 2017-04-13 06:21:00 UTC Reply

Hello PPC.

I was thinking about dropping into chat, and found that it is a different beast these days. I was wondering if I could get an invite?

MIAH! by HerrWozzeck on 2017-04-18 02:58:00 UTC Reply

*glomp*

Isn't it funny that you should returnbie a few months after I become a returnbie myself! How hast thou been?
Belated welcome back! *tosses Spikes* (nm) by SkarmorySilver on 2017-04-15 00:08:00 UTC Reply
Hello returnbie. by Hardric on 2017-04-14 19:50:00 UTC Reply

Please have a pot of black-hole coffee, and a self-updating guidebook of all the deathtraps in the multiverse.
Oh my gosh an oldbie! Welcome back! *waves* (nm) by eatpraylove on 2017-04-13 22:44:00 UTC Reply
Miah! Long time no see! by Iximaz on 2017-04-13 06:52:00 UTC Reply

Have a plate of welcome-back SPaGhetti!

Thanks! by Miah on 2017-04-13 07:59:00 UTC Reply

It's good to see you, too. After I posted, I was looking back through the Board, and saw you have 75+ missions now? Whoa! That is seriously impressive.

It's eighty now. ^w^ by Iximaz on 2017-04-13 15:01:00 UTC Reply

Unfortunately, depression hit me like a truck and I haven't written much since November. I'm on meds that seem to be working so far, though, so I hope to change that soon.

I saw the post about your kids and wow, I knew you were a mom, but not old enough to be my mom! I feel so little now... :P Congrats about your youngest getting into Snicket, by the way—you should try Percy Jackson next, if you don't mind recommendations. :)

MIIIIIAAAAAH!!! :D by doctorlit on 2017-04-13 06:47:00 UTC Reply

Oh my gosh, it's so good to hear from you again! How are you, how's the husband, how're the kids? What have you been up to? What grades are your kids up to?

We're working on making the invite link to the Discord chat, but it seems to be acting up—actually, I think Maslab just solved it. Anyway, glad to see you again, and can't wait to hear from you in the chat!

—doctorlit may have yelled your name out loud in a high-pitched voice when he saw it

Updates by Miah on 2017-04-13 07:56:00 UTC Reply

I'm pretty good. I joined a community orchestra and have been learning to play the viola, although I am on a break this semester. I started writing fanfics on AO3 under Miah_Arthur. They are all in Haven for now. It's a tiny fandom, but was good for a new fanfic author. I have just about finished one in Star Trek Voyager, so branching out. I've played a lot of Fallout, and some Dragon Age, and the new PS4 import of Skyrim. We're up to 6 cats now (8 if you count the two that show up occasionally), so I think I have cemented my status as Crazy Cat Lady.

Warcabbage is good. He's thinking about opening a food truck. How crazy is that? Still has the same job he did before. Still makes amazing beer, but now also makes his own sausage, smoked meats, and roasts his own coffee. He'd be hipster material if his job didn't demand he keep clean shaven, so the gas mask can seal properly.

You're not going to believe this, but my oldest is now 17! He's a junior in high school. He plans to go to college to study microbiology and genetics. He's particularly interested in defeating antibiotic resistant bacteria. His science classes are doing things that 20 years ago were practically science fiction! They genetically engineered glowing bacteria this week, and he has a project he is planning for microbiology next year to combine bacteria from hot springs with strep to see if it will make them more susceptible to antibiotics. It kind of blows my mind. When I was in high school, the school couldn't even get enough money for us to dissect worms, forget pigs, and he's altering the genomes of bacteria. He'd probably get annoyed if I didn't mention that he is in Quizbowl and his team won state last year, and is about to play for state again this year.

The middle kid (15, sophmore) has put us all through some truly awful times (himself included). He's living with my mother permanently now, but it seems to be good for him. He's happy up there, and that school has a better art program. He is a seriously amazing artist. I think he could make a living at it, he's so good.

The little one is 8 (9 soon). He's in 2nd grade. He keeps me busy. I homeschool him, and ferry him around to OT, PT, Speech (on horseback for that), Vision Therapy, counseling. He also plays violin in orchestra, does musical theater (they do the middle school level scripts, Pinocchio this spring), and a special needs, no scores kept baseball program, which has promised to let him work in the concession stand after his games. He's really, really into concession stands and playing shop right now.

He's doing amazing though. You'll like this one. He is reading A Series of Unfortunate Events for fun right now. Even more amazing is that last May he couldn't identify the entire alphabet, but with the help of Vision Therapy he's reading Lemony Snicket. That's about a 6.8 AR reading level!

What have you been up to? It's great to see familiar faces. I was kind of afraid that I'd get here and everyone I knew would be gone.

Re: Updates by Mattman The Comet on 2017-04-13 15:15:00 UTC Reply

Recoils slightly that an Oldbie has a kid in the same grade as himself

Re: Updates by Miah on 2017-04-14 14:45:00 UTC Reply

If it makes you feel any better, I am about ten years older than some folks that joined the PPC ten years before me.
I've tried by Miah on 2017-04-13 18:54:00 UTC Reply

I've tried to get him to look at the PPC, but he's a total luddite. If the school didn't require him to use the school issued laptop, he would barely even touch a computer. He's not on social media, and has an old flip phone with $5.00 worth of texts and calls a month just so he can get me to pick him up after Quizbowl practices. He doesn't even see the point in having a smart phone. It's shocking for a teenager.

That is rather peculiar. by Scapegrace on 2017-04-14 10:49:00 UTC Reply

At least he's driven, I suppose; I wouldn't want the world to lose out on the self-eating vegetable (an invention that children the world over consider deserving of a Nobel Prizr for Everything Ever) purely because the inventor was distracted by cracking wise about the Legolas-related contents of some fangirl's fevered imagination.

Still, one assumes he has at least a certain level of computer literacy. Sell it to him thus: no matter how many times you win your Quizbowl or how many strains of bacteria you force to bounce around on a hot spring (there may have been something lost in transmission there), no employer will touch you with a ten-foot pole if you're not fluent and adept with computers. Hell, microbiology makes them even more important; predictive algorithms'll be how most of the advances he'll be making will be modeled in the first place, and if he doesn't know how to code them then he's very much up a certain creek without paddles, a canoe, or even a conk-mounted clothes peg.

Then again, what do I know. I'm the kind of sad sack who's soon to embark on a Creative Writing MA... that I've got onto despite not having any previous qualifications in English after GCSE-level. And I got on that course almost solely with the aid of Friend Computer.

~~teach him to play paranoia. do eet. dooo eeeeeeeet.~~

This has been: Parenting Tips from the Twenty-Four-Year-Old Limey who Wants Children Slightly Less than Terminal Scrotal Cancer. You're very welcome. =]

other updates by doctorlit on 2017-04-13 14:21:00 UTC Reply

Oh, man. Your kids are amazing. You must be so proud of them!

I've moved out of my parents' house into a little condominium. It's five minutes from the zoo, so it's a lovely save on gasoline. I also finally got accepted as a zookeeper, and I've sort of inadvertently become the sidekick to all the building exhibit teams. I get to work different areas all week, so I stay trained well enough to cover vacation and sick days when they roll around. It's quite fun, and I get to work with a wide variety of animals—reptiles and mammals, and a few birds.

I'm totally turning into a workaholic, though. I keep finding excuses to work on little projects after my shift ends, and next thing I know, the sun is down and I'm famished because my stomach was expecting dinner already. One good bit about it, though: the head keeper of the buildings teams learned last week that I've been taking the black light flashlight through all the buildings once a week to hunt for scorpions, and she talked to the collections curator (the position above all zookeepers), and he okayed putting those nights on my time card. Yay!

The Discord chat is acting weird about creating the official invite link for people. Only the temporary links are working right now, and they expire. We'll have to try and get you a link sometime you're actively online so we can get you in there.

—doctorlit

Re: Hi by Maslab on 2017-04-13 06:46:00 UTC Reply

Try this: https://discord.gg/YwHFh

Re: Hi by Miah on 2017-04-13 07:58:00 UTC Reply

Sorry, the link says it is expired.

How have you been?

Re: Hi by Maslab on 2017-04-13 18:52:00 UTC Reply

No problem! I've been good!

Here, try this one: https://discord.gg/8KS4N